Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-25
do other little girls and boys remember as
well? A soft "Come in" and Fay stood
by grandma's side, quietly watching the

- INK I~NNLIl
glaucing needles OF the pretty knitting
| that must be finished to-day.
"Grandms, tell me story"
ga story! why, 1 thought pet would
have no time for stories to-day. What do
you want to heaf?"
"'Bout the bear ard Kismss, when
mamma was little girl in the house in
the woods.'
"Well, curl up in the big armchair. 1
expect the little one is tired, and will
tell you the story"
ga great many years ago grandpa asked
me if 1 would come and live with
him in new country In the
far west. I could not tell him no,
and, although I loved my father and
mother dearly, when Grandpa came with o
big covered wagon kissed the old folks
and, with eyes full Of tears, babe good
bye to the home where l was born and
started for the west. Desr mother put
in a spiDring-wh6el, for there was no
cloth to buy. must spin snd weave it
from the wool she gave me. There was 8
cow to drive, and just IS we were starting
my little brother brought his pet pig. 1t
wes oil he had to give and we could not
refuse to take it.
The way was long; there were rivers
to cross, big woods to go through, and it
was seldom We saw any houses, and
these were of logs with no glass in the
windows aud chimneys built Of mud and
sticks. When night came We stopped
near water, built fire and, after feeding
our animals, cooked supper and made
our bed in the wsgon.
"Wasn't you 'faid of bears and tigers
sn' lelefants, grandma"
"Not much" Grandma did not inter-
rupt the story to tell her that tigers and
elephants did not walk about in the woods
Of America and were only wild in India
and other hot countries of tie far east.
"At last we reached the land your
grandpa had bought and where now are
all the big buildings Of this city, then
there were only big trees and a little fisld
where tae trees were cut down and corn
had been planted. Grandpa lived out
here year before he came after me and
so did not have it as hard as did some"
'I5 must have been awful lonesome.
Supposin' an Ipjun or drate big beer
come, what would you DO, grandms?"
"Oh! there were people not very far
away and when Grandpa blew his big tin
horn they could hear it and knew it
meant that they should come and they
did not wait long"
These frontier people had been SO kind
to US that proposed to have Christmas
dinner and invite the neigbbors, ard per-
haps I wanted to show them what good
cook I was. Grandpa and / talked it
over and we thought it would be the
right thing, and he was as anxious as NY
self to have everything pass OF we'll
The first thing We did was to trim our
little cabin with Cristmasgreens, Tee holly
trees grew thick around Us end the oak
had many boughs of mistletoe. Shoulder
ing his ax, grandpa and / went out. and
soon were loaded down with all that was
needed to deck our new home. AS we
passed the bank o. the river, where
now you gee all tbs big steam
boats, grandpa stopped to set
his hsh-trap, end in the morning
he would be sure to find e big fish for the
Christmas dinner. That night we worked
busily by the light Of pine knot, grandpa
had shot wild turkey and plucked the
feathers and made it ready to COOK, while
he prepared g pig; we had family Of
them now out in the little shed, and we
thought we could spare one for our Christ
mas dinner, and indeed he did look very
nice with one Of the red spples in his
mouth that mother had sent from the old
home.
Fay looked up, her blue eyes stretched
wide: "Grandms tould the piggie est
the apple when he was troked?"
Grandma laughed heartily. mo, no,
dear, that wss only TO make him look
pretty"
"Did yeu put him all whole in the
oven?"
"Oven? Why, my child. we had no
oven, the turkey and pig were tied By {.
string and they swung and twisted and
twisted and swung before great
Dig log fire until every
part was brown as berry.
While we were st work grandpa told me
shout seeing bear tracks as ne went for
his fish that morning, for there hads been
light fall of snow the night before, and
he said that after dinner the men folks
would go out and have bear hunt while
we women Strengthened up for tie dance
at night
Next morning when l was busiest
suddenly heard signal, and looking out
saw Mr.. Bear walking OF with one Of the
pigs Rugged up in his arms. Grandpa
took down his gun from the forks over the
door and started, while left my cooking
and blew the. tin horn with al my might.
Grandma paused and looked up, for gen
orally the little one interrupted her in
eager desire to know II they caught the
bear, and if the piggie was dead. The
dear little curly head had fallen, the hand